The Injection Enters the Space Age

When pediatrician Clifford Rubin tells his young patients they need an injection, more and more he hears the same request: Zap me, doctor. Don’t shoot me.

Rubin, who practices in Beverly Hills, is among a small number of Southern California doctors who now use a needle-free technique to give patients routine immunizations and other injections. The kids consider it “Star Wars” medicine.

Called Bioject, the hand-held system forces the medication through the skin at high speed.

Here’s how: medicine is first placed in a plastic vial. The vial is loaded onto the Bioject system, containing pressurized carbon dioxide, and then placed on the skin. The release of pressure from the carbon dioxide compartment forces the medication through the skin. The point of entry is about a third the size as that made by a traditional needle syringe, according to Dan Zenka, a company spokesman.

The concept of jet injection isn’t new, he adds. “It was used in the ‘40s for mass immunization programs, but the systems were crude and didn’t work very well.

“Eventually, this system will become the norm,” says Rubin, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA. But first, he says, the costs need to come down.

According to Zenka, a traditional needle injection, not including medicine, costs a physician about 33 cents, while a Bioject application costs about 99 cents. He expects single-application costs to come down in the near future.

Until needleless shots are commonplace, there’s much a child--or adult--can do to minimize the unpleasantness of an injection, says Los Angeles psychologist Gary Emery.

* Realize it probably won’t feel as bad as you think it will. “It’s not the shot, it’s the thought of the shot, the anticipation,” Emery says.

* Do deep breathing.

* Parents might also suggest that children engage in some whimsical make-believe, Emery adds. “Suggest your child imagine that the shot will make her invincible.”